What a Life!

Another sweater off the needles. This one for Ben.

It’s the Seamless Hybrid by Elizabeth Zimmermann from Knitting Without Tears. Knit with Valley Yarn’s Northampton (from Webs), 100% wool, in color Sour Apple [Ben’s choice, not mine].

It is by no means perfect. In fact, if it were up to me, it would not even be considered finished. The bottom seam on the body is a bit obvious, and I was going to re-do that. The sleeves are a little snug in the forearm, and I could have fixed that, too. The kitchener stitching under the arms is by no means even. And it is fresh off the needles so it has not been blocked.

But I made the mistake of trying it on him to see how it fit. I saw how it fit, alright. But fixing it was not to be. He would not take it off. Okay, I got him to let me bury the last couple ends, but only while he stood over me, anxiously waiting to put it back on. It isn’t even really sweater weather today, but he’s wearing it. I think maybe he likes it, no?

It does have a special feature I made just for him. If I would have followed the directions for finishing the back half of the yoke, the neck would have been too small. So I just skipped that part, making the sweater the same on each side. As in, no front or back. When Ben wears his clothes backwards [which seems to be quite often], I call him Neb [which, of course, is his name spelled backwards]. Thus the name of the sweater – Nebben. Forwards and backwards at the same time.

This really is probably the most imperfect thing I have ever made, even if you go back to some of my first projects. The knitting would make the members of the TKGA Master Knitter’s Committee cringe. I’ve been knitting my swatches for Level I of the Master Knitter certification, and I’m thinking there might be a bit of rebellion going on here. I really do take better care when I make things to ensure they look nice than this. But as I said, it has been taken out of my hands and is being used and loved – what can I say?

I’m not sure I’ll be letting him wear it out of the house, though. It really is that bad. It can be his sweater to wear at home as much as he wants, unlike other sweater’s I’ve knit that are just worn when we go to town. This one can be for enjoying. He can wear it every day if he wants, and I won’t worry about something happening to it. This one’s for him. I shall leave it at that.